News from Seattle's Office of Economic Development

OED Weekly Round-up: March 18-24

Seattle’s tech workers have high rates of disposable income. Seattle hosted its first LGBT economic summit. Ravenna Solutions is bought by national education company. Puget Sound Business Journal reviews the biggest start-up deals of 2016.

1. Seattle’s tech workers have the highest disposable income in the country, per a new report from Zillow and LinkedIn. They have $5,500 of their monthly income left over, compared to $4,000 for San Francisco’s tech workers. Curbed contends that Seattle has “that sweet spot between income, taxes, and housing costs for tech workers”.

2. King 5 reports that the Greater Seattle Business Associating hosted its first LGBT economic summit. This summit welcomee LGBT business leaders from Washington, California, Oregon, Nevada, and Hawaii. “When you see that there are thousands and thousands of LGBT business owners and allied business owners and that together, we can affect laws, we can work on issues of equality, and we can support our community and non-profits, it will empower us” said Greater Seattle Business Association President Louise Chernin.

3. Education Brands, a national company that provides education services for 4,000 schools across the country, acquired Seattle education company Ravenna Solutions. The two companies are teaming up to provide cloud service and payment solutions for the nation’s schools, according to GeekWire

4. Puget Sound Business Journal put out their list of 2016’s largest start-up deals in Washington state. “In Seattle specifically, there continues to be more and more investors, whether angel investors or venture capital funds,” Remitly CEO Matt Oppenheimer said.